CSR’s primary role is to handle the receipt and review of ~ 75% of the grant applications that NIH receives. NIH separates the review process from funding decisions.
For Reviewers
Reviewers are critical to our mission to see that NIH grant applications receive, fair, independent, expert, and timely scientific reviews. We appreciate the generosity with which reviewers give their time.
News & Policy
The latest news and policy updates from CSR. Read about our outreach programs and publications.
Study Sections
Applications are reviewed in study sections (Scientific Review Group, SRG). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline.
Review Panels & Dates
Applications are reviewed in study sections (Scientific Review Group, SRG). Review Branches (RBs) are clusters of study sections based on scientific discipline.
Dr. Jennifer C. Villa received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences and conducted her thesis research on gamma-secretase regulation of notch signaling in hypoxic breast cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She received postdoctoral training…
Dr. Shannon Sherman received her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Delaware. She then joined the J. Craig Venter Institute as the Director of Environmental Virology where her research focused on virus-host interactions…
Dr. Abdelouahab Aitouche is the Scientific Review Officer for the CSR’s Physiology and Pathobiology of Organ Systems Study Sections. He coordinates the review process of various fellowship grant application mechanisms.
Dr. Aitouche did his undergraduate studies in his native country Algeria. He…
Dr. Barry Margulies received B.S. at MIT in Applied Biological Sciences, with research in controlled release technology. He earned his Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in biochemistry, cellular, and molecular biology, where he studied the G protein-coupled receptors encoded…
Dr. Christopher Mahone earned his Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he studied activating signals of bacterial cell wall remodeling for division. Following his Ph.D., he joined the Milken Institute’s Pillar for Philanthropy as a senior associate,…
Dr. Gloria Su received her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Chicago. Her post-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine focused on identifying tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes important to pancreatic tumorigenesis. She joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins…
Dr. Ian Thorpe received his Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute (California) in the field of computational biochemistry and biophysics, where he was a trainee of the La Jolla Interfaces in Science program. He then did postdoctoral training in the Center for Biophysical Modeling and Simulation…
CSR Advisory Council Update – Dr. Noni Byrnes, Ph.D., CSR Director
ENQUIRE Group 16 – Healthcare Delivery and Patient Management – Dr. Valerie Durrant, Ph.D., CSR DABP Director
ENQUIRE Group 9 – Gastroinstestinal, Renal, Endocrine, Metabolism - Dr. Larry Boerboom, Ph.D., CSR DPPS Director…
After receiving a Ph.D. in nutritional sciences, Dr. James served for 11 years at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), where she began as a grants administrator for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in the Division of Food Safety and Nutrition. Her later years at USDA were…
CSR Advisory Council Update – Dr. Noni Byrnes, CSR Director
Slides
Video
CSR Advisory Council Workgroup: Simplifying Review Criteria – Dr. Bruce Reed, CSR Deputy Director & Dr. Tonya Palermo, University of Washington, CSR Advisory Council…
Dr. Anna Babakhanyan received a master’s degree in biotechnology from San Jose State University and her Ph.D. in tropical medicine from the University of Hawaiʻi School of Medicine. She evaluated naturally acquired antibody responses to pregnancy-associated malaria vaccine candidates in Cameroonian…
Open the folder where you saved the zApps file. Figure 1 shows the folders and files included in the zApps. Double-click on the file ClickMe.htm, which will open in your default web browser (but you do not need to be connected to the Internet to open this file).
Figure 1- List of files…
Dr. Syed Moin earned his Ph.D. in molecular virology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, conducting his thesis research on host-pathogen interactions involving hepatitis E virus at the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, India, and the US Centers for Disease Control…
Click on the zApps zipfile you downloaded. The Archive Utility in the macOS operating systems will unzip the file and automatically create a folder for the resulting content. Figure 1 shows the Archive Utility as it unzips a zApps file for the example “201005_PTHE.zip”.…
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Dr. Alexander Gubin came to this position after participating in CSR's Review Internship Program. Before that, he was an ORISE Fellow at Food and Drug Administration, where he worked in Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Laboratory of Developmental Biology. After receiving his Ph.D. in…
Dr. Elena Smirnova serves as Chief of the Molecular Genetics and Genomics Review Branch (MGG RB).
Dr. Elena Smirnova earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry/biophysics from Heidelberg University in Germany. She did her post-doctoral training in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the UCLA School of…
Dr. Ghenima Dirami received a Ph.D. in biochemical endocrinology from the University of London in England. Before joining NIH, Dr. Dirami received her postdoctoral training at Georgetown University. Her research in the Lung Biology Laboratory there focused on oxidant-induced lung injury and on the…
Does the NIH policy on rigor and transparency apply to all types of NIH grants?
Where in grant applications should applicants address the four focus areas of the NIH policy on rigor and transparency?
What is the difference between "rigor of the prior research" and "significance"?
Should…
Dr. Joseph Rudolph serves as Chief of the Neurotechnology and Vision Review Branch (NV RB).Dr. Rudolph earned his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Florida, where he studied the effects of chronic ethanol exposure on NMDA receptor pharmacology and physiology. He first came to the NIH…
Dr. Lambratu Rahman Sesay serves as Chief of the Cancer Therapeutics Review Branch (CTH RB).Dr. Lambratu Rahman Sesay received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Howard University in Washington, DC. Before coming to CSR, she was an intramural research training associate in the Molecular Therapeutics…
Dr. Mark Caprara serves as Chief of the Molecular and Cellular Sciences and Technologies Review Branch (MCST RB).After receiving his Ph.D. in biology from Temple University, he carried out postdoctoral training in the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas, Austin.…
Dr. Mufeng Li received her Ph.D. in physiology from Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She subsequently pursued her postdoctoral training at the Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Section in National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS),…
Dr. James Li received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he then started his professional career as a senior medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical industry working on preclinical drug discovery programs involving pain management, anti-inflammatory,…
Dr. Marc Boulay received his Ph.D. in international health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he then served as an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society and as the Deputy Director for Program Evaluation in the School’s Center for…